this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2026
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The rear wheel of the bike in the picture tells me all of this is completely fantasy.
They have been trying to make the hubless wheel a futuristic thing for so long it’s technically retro now.
The hubless wheel is on their current models. It's basically their signature differentiator.
There's reason to be skeptical of the company and its claims as a whole, but at least that particular feature has shipped and has been test driven by reviewers:
https://thepack.news/11000-km-in-2-months-marc-travels-rides-the-verge-ts-across-europe/
Well thanks for correcting me, that is wild. I can't imagine it's actually pragmatic.
At least it being a fully integrated hub(less) electric motor makes it a much more sensible of a solution than many other tries with all kinds of belt drives and gears and cogs and stuff.
Even the tire change is pretty simple.
more complex, more expensive, more prone to fail fromdirt entering gears, more strain on rims, and alignment in cornering suffers.
There are good reason why real motorcycle companies avoid these designs that are best left as movie props.
Adding a bunch of unsprung weight is a poor decision when it comes to handling though, and that's something pretty important in a motorbike that's trying to do more than just low speed commuting. Such a design will also be putting a lot of vibration through the motor components which is not good for longevity. It's more a case of going for the (admittedly distinctive) aesthetic rather than being sensible.
Makes me wonder about the wheel's rotational inertia, too. In theory, a hubless wheel could be lower mass overall without the need for a center axle/hub and spokes connecting the outside to the center. But that's all weight saved in the center of the wheel with lower effect on overall rotational inertia. Visually, the picture that makes the thumbnail in this post shows that the brake disc has to be further from the center of the wheel, which I imagine adds a lot more weight (more material necessary for the overall brake disc being a larger circle) and a lot more rotational inertia (further from the center).
Maybe the whole design itself can save weight in certain places that make up for the weight added in other places. But I just have a ton of questions, and am overall pretty skeptical of the long term potential of this design.
Looks cool, though, I guess.
The motor design has huge performance benefits. Power is like a solid disk motor of the same size. Their previous model claimed much faster 0-60 time, and so I don't get why it dropped, but if true, the discharge rate of battery simply isn't as high as NMC. That would also explain why they have to have both huge range and fast charge.
I watched that exact video. I still don't think it's ever more efficient to have a hubless wheel vs a good central bearing.
Because it isn't? I'm comparing it to other hubless designs, stuff like this.
It's just more bullshit for a company marketing bullshit to techbros who will use these bikes as living room ornaments.
There is no advantage to a hubless wheel.
Sure there is. There's a value to some people to look different. That translates to dollars.
There's not a Performance advantage to a hubless wheel.
Motorcycle buyers, especially sportbikes, don't take kindly to bullshit. Hubless wheels are heavy, have more wear components and are pointlessly complex. But pointless complexity is a requirement in EVs to justify the overprice.
And truck buyers value functionality. Yet the cyber truck made money. 🤷♂️
Looks cool, ngl
tells thieves not to steal it